Jamie Gold

All right, let's wrap this all up with some pictures (below) closing thoughts on the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship red carpet/draw party last night.

First, job well done to Jon Miller of NBC for growing this event to what it is. This was easily the biggest red carpet crowd with the most excitement around it we've seen in the three years we've been covering it. Plus adding GoDaddy.com as a sponsor brings yet another big name mainstream advertiser into the fold (which = good for the game).

In an extremely poorly crafted press release with multiple spelling/grammatical errors, Gold's team let's us know that on Oscar night this Sunday you can play in a charity tournament as:

"ACED [Gold's new online sponsor] has donated an [sic] very generous award...the lucky winner will have a once in a lifetime priceless opportunity: a $10,000 seat into the world's most prestigious poker event, along with an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas, private dinner and complete coaching by champion Gold prior to the main event, the best chance our winner can cash in for over 10,000,000 dollars and be poker's next world champion! The CUN Viewing event is to raise money and awareness for foster and at-risk youth through schools and mentorship programs."

Gold is quoted as saying:

"Some things are more important than trying to win $7 million dollars! These kids need our help."

Ok, no one is questioning Gold's charitable bonafides. He's done a great deal for a number of philanthropic organizations and should be applauded for it. However, where in this press releasedoes it say howhe is giving up a shot to win some mythical 7 mil prize? Wtf? Sure, the LAPC Main Event is going on then, and maybe it'll have a $7,000,000 total prize pool, and maybe the winner will see around $1.5M or so. Is that what they're talking about? If so, that's about as misleading as a stripper pretending she really likes you and is even considering your offer to take her to dinner some time...while she's giving you a lapdance of course.

You know what they say about history...You know what they say about history.

Figured we needed to bring some sexyness back on the homepage since you've been staring at Russ Hamilton's ugly mug the past few days. Enter Suelyn Medeiros, a Brazilian model who is so hot, that if it came out she was implicated in the UB super-user account scandal too, we'd be like, "Well, so what? What's the big deal? Who wouldn't do the same in her situation? Did you see her ass, btw?" View more below or the full set of pics here.

Barring some crazy breaking story, Wicked Chops Poker will be off Memorial Day Weekend. With the 2008 World Series of Poker just a week away (meaning six straight weeks of unrelenting poker coverage), and 2/3 of the Entities in Ireland right now, and 1/3 of the Entities staggering drunk for three-days, let's be honest, not much is going to get done.

But to get in the mindset for the 2008 WSOP, here's some recommended reading from WCP coverage of WSOP's past.

Rae Valentine, the videographer who followed Jamie Gold around pretty much everywhere the WSOP Main Event champ went for several months before, during and after his controversial win in the summer of 2006, is set to auction off all of the video footage he has of Gold on eBay which he claims will "validate some of the negative imagery surrounding the life of Jamie Gold."

Says Valentine on a website he created recently:

"On August 10, 2008, the 2-year anniversary of Jamie's World Series Of Poker 2006 win, I will end a 5-day auction on Ebay providing the winning bid with all video content associated with the Jamie Gold Project, in its entirety. Maybe this day will prove to be lucky for me. I truly hope whomever ends up with this content has the same passion I once had of making a compelling movie documentary, even in it's moments of controversy, as interesting and entertaining a story, I know it to be."

Valentine claims that he was hired by Gold per a "gentlemen's agreement" (Jamie's good at those) to produce a behind the scenes movie documentary and had followed Jamie "through airports and hotels, limos and casinos, from Los Angeles to New York."

Valentine alleges that their friendship soured after Gold's win and that he has lost "an estimated $150k" because apparently Jamie no longer wishes to use the footage for a documentary, which we can't really blame Gold for considering how sucky poker movies are doing at the box office.

According to Valentine:

"A majority of the footage shows Jamie as an arrogant, paranoid, at times over-the-top individual who through all of his imperfections can be quite entertaining as he plots strategies (while in the comfort of his hotel bed with two plain clothes security guards posted just outside his door) on how he will defeat each of his opponents in the final days leading up to his poker world series victory."

Arrogant, paranoid, at times over-the-top, and with security guards? No, not the Jamie Gold we know. No way.

Check out all of what Rae has to say on his website, including a few transcripts from the footage featuring none other than our good pal Crispin Leyser, here.

Neil Channing, a ginger, so he has no soul and may kill you in your sleep if he gets the chance, has won the 2008 Irish Poker Open in Dublin, Ireland.

After working his way through a field of 667 players, the 40-year-old from London entered the televised final table with more than a third of the chips in play and steamrolled over his competitors in a manner reminiscent of the way Jamie Gold dominated the final table at the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event.

For the win, "Bad Beat" Channing takes home €801,400. Runner-up Donal Norton, the sole Irishman at the final table, walks with €420,000.

While we weren't there in Dublin to cover the event as we've been banished from the Emerald Isle ever since the naked leprechaun tossing debacle in Kilkenny ten years ago, our pal Owen Laukannen was there and you can read his full wrap-up here.

Speaking of leprechaun tossing, for a video showing what all Canadians do to celebrate St. Patrick's Day besides freeze their asses off, go here.

Photo above of Neil Channing, a ginger, and last year's Irish Open champ, Marty Smyth, also a ginger.

*UPDATE: There's a good chance based on people who have played against him that Neil isn't an actual ginger although he does show some ginger tendencies. Perhaps it was just the photos Owen took that made him look pretty ginger-y to us. Same goes with Marty, although the dude's pretty much bald so it's hard to tell. Regardless, being labeled a ginger is a serious matter and if we're wrong, our apologies.

2005 winner Phil Hellmuth (above) took a devastating beat on hand number three against online pro Tom "durrr" Dwan. Hellmuth, holding pocket aces, called a re-raise all in by Dwan, who held tens. A ten hit on the turn, sending Hellmuth to the rail.

So we made it to the Commerce today after a night of relatively moderate bedlam that kicked off at the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica and somehow ended up with us at a Laurel Canyon mansion this morning with a group of Venice Beach trust fund hippies who graffiti'd are SUV rental with Obama stickers.

We'll save that story however for our forthcoming 4-part series entitled "How We Spent the Friday Night Before the WPT LA Poker Classic."

For now, the word from the Commerce is that the action got underway almost 35 7 plus hours ago and we're finally getting around to writing something and we don't have much to say besides that pretty much every poker player you know this side of the Atlantic is here including Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Jamie Gold, John Phan, Carlos Mortensen, Are You Really Reading this List?, Paul Wasicka, Vannessa "Went to Duke" Rousso, Grover Cleveland, Layne Flack, Phil Laak, Josh Arieh, Rhahaeid Skaoodo, David Plastik, Barry Greenstein, Dan Harrington, Erick Lindgren, Mother Teresa, Eric Mizrachi, Scott Clements, Haralabos Voulgaris, Still Reading This?, David Williams, Freddy Deeb, We Wonder What We Should Eat for Dinner, Gavin Smith, David Singer, Lee Watkinson, Perhaps We'll Go to Panchos Tonight, Tom Schneider, Mark Seif, This Is Getting Tiring, Chau Giang, Tim Phan and Erick Seidel.

In total, 665 players started today, down considerably from last year's 791, and the total prize pool is $6,374,400, with first place set to take home $1,596,100. In 2007, Eric Hershler walked away with $2,429,970.

How Wicked Chops Poker turned into the Brandi Hawbaker Network over the past 48 hours is beyond us, but whatever, it's great for ratings.

So we got word direct from the source that 2006 WSOP champ Jamie Gold never hooked up with Brandi (can we get a nickname for her from one of our readers? anyone?) as has been reported on WCP the forums. So let's strike that hook-up from the record for those keeping tabs at home. Didn't happen. Our apologies.

NBC has announced its initial line-up for the (no longer?) Shana Hiatt-hosted 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and while most of the field is the same old same old (Doyle, Ivey, Chan, Jesus, Greenstein, Hellmuth, Shannon Elizabeth), a few new players on the scene are set to compete including Mirage Poker Showdown winner Jonathan Little, high stakes cash player Brian Townsend and God-on-his-side 2007 WSOP Main Event Champion Jerry Yang (seen at right), who besides his Chris McCandless-esque journey into the wilds of that cold ice mass north of America, we haven't seen much of since July.

Antonio Esfandiari, who hasn't done much on the poker circuit since Bush's first term, is also among the players set to play, for some reason. Or maybe he's just going to do table side magic or something.

The nationally televised single elimination tournament, which was won last year by Paul Wasicka, is set to take place February 29 - March 2 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas just as the LA Poker Classic wraps at the Commerce. The show will air on NBC in April and May.

For more on the NBC Heads-Up Championship go to the official site here.

For what 2006 WSOP Main Event champ Jamie Gold had to say about Wicked Chops Poker at last year's NBC Heads-Up championship go here.

This past Tuesday night, Phil Hellmuth threw a big birthday/holiday party in a Palms fantasy suite. If we were retarded, we'd say it looked "off the chain" or "off the hook" or "was the bomb." The dude with that thing on his chin from Anthrax played, and apparently, plenty of booze was available.

Having some fun at the party included party tour guide Gavin Smith, recent Five-Diamond $5k runner-up finisherSully Erna, Roland de Wolfe, and Jamie Gold (who provides one of the night's best lines about 3:45 in). Watch below or here.

So the era of Jamie Gold as the WSOP Main Event champ is over, which sucks for us because we don't expect Jerry Yang, the Ajax of poker, to give us any real good material to write about over the next 12 months, at least not like our favorite Malibu blowhard did.

Sure Jerry Yang, a God-loving, clean-living, charity-giving, father of six immigrant from Laos, has a truly compelling story, one that is the ultimate manifestation of the American dream--kind of like Tuan Lam's tale of immigrating from Vietnam is except totally different because Lam finished second and lives in Canada. But what can we expect from our new champion as a storyline after the initial media honeymoon is over? Will he balk on giving to the charities he promised? Not likely. Will he produce a new show called "The Hottest Hmong in America?" with a website that says "You Hot Hmong You" every time you visit it? That would be awesome. Will he stiff the WSOP dealers out of a big tip? Wait, he did stiff the dealers out of a big tip?

Anyway, lots of people other than us are talking about Yang and below are the best reads we've found so far on the game's new de facto ambassador. Check 'em out.

It was a disappointing return to the World Series of Poker for Jamie Gold (a paltry $14,000 in cashes and no deep runs) after a disappointing year with him as poker's ambassador.

Gold, who has been looking more like a homeless man around the Rio than the reigning World Champion of poker lately, was eliminated just after the dinner break on Day 1d of the 2007 WSOP. Gold had been at the ESPN featured table all day and proved to be more Varkonyi/Moneymaker-like than Raymer/Hachem-esque in his quest to repeat as champion.

With the start of the 2007 WSOP Main Event just hours away, we thought now would be a good time to look back at what Jamie Gold told us about his predictions for this year's WSOP in our exclusive interview with the soon-to-be former World Champion.

Actually it really isn't a good time for that, or at least not as good of a time as looking at photos of the ridiculously hot Amanda Braun (seen in pic).

But since we brought it up, Gold had the following to say when we asked him for his prediction for this year's WSOP:

"I know this is the thing you guys are going to kill me on, but I think I'll make the final table this year. I know you're gonna slam me on this, but that's what I believe. If you don't believe that, then why are you playing?"

Gold also said: "The Main Event is really important to me. My dream would be to stay in Vegas a month and play as much as possible. I'd like to try and win a little bit of money just to say I've accomplished something in my second year."

Hanging with the crew at ThePokerBiz.com as Event #8 broke for dinner, we saw Jamie Gold in his all-too-familiar-from-last-year rapid hallway shuffle to the pisser, sans the bodyguards, with none other than the freaky ass Brandi Hawbaker hot on his heels spreading pestilence on unsuspecting passerbys.

Our penises curiously gazed at the narcissistic, hot-enough-to-bang, flame tosser but thankfully the penises were smart enough to dive for cover as she got closer. They may not look it, but our penises are frickin' Einsteins . . . that is, if Einstein was known for sensing the herp from a few steps away.

So what's up with Brandi Hawbaker and Jamie Gold palling around? Is the 2006 WSOP champ "backing" the former pageant girl? Is she the next member of Team BuzzNation? Will our penises' curiosities ever get the best of them?

Well, ThePokerBiz.com team of writers have already jumped on the Jamie Gold-Brandi Hawbaker sighting, so read about it there. We on the other hand are busy trying to convince our penises it's OK to come out now.

And you only have five days to act to be the proud owner of this "ultimate poker collectible" that, according to its auctioner "poker-kitty", was "used" by 2006 WSOP champion Jamie Gold "just prior to winning the biggest cash prize ($12 million) in all of sports history."

Poker-kitty, who has a 100% positive feedback rating on eBay and is a 100% douchebag, goes on to say: "The mint in question was acquired (via rubber gloves) from a hotel men's room attendant (close friend of the family; can't disclose his name for obvious reasons), immediately bagged and labeled and stored for safe keeping."

"While this item is DEFINITELY different, that peculiarity and rarity makes it the absolute ultimate piece of poker memorabilia of all time," says poker-kitty. "Heck, you could even use it as a dealer button if you really wanted to, although I'd strongly suggest washing it first!"

There's really nothing we can add to this, except that if this person nabs $5,000 for Gold's piss mint, which is about as likely as it is the real deal, Tao of Poker's Pauly, who loves to write about the pros he whizzes next to at tournaments, has a whole new income stream, so to speak, available to him to pad his bankroll.

Editor's Note: Sorry about the first headline. That's for our other blog.

In surprising news that should be surprising to no one, WSOP commish Jeffrey Pollack said in a press release today that the World Series of Poker "will not penalize reigning WSOP World Champion Jamie Gold for two rules infractions that occurred during the 2006 WSOP Main Event."

For a refresher on those two infractions, read our "Forgive Me for Cheating" (aka "Jamie Gold is like herpes") piece here.

According to the press release, which you can read in its entirety after the jump, WSOP officials reviewed video of the infractions and discussed them personally with Gold and concluded that "he did not deliberately attempt to violate the rules and that no penalties would be invoked retroactively for the incidents."

"Not only were we impressed with Jamie's candor and contrition, but we also recognized that tournament officials didn't witness the incidents or take appropriate action at the time of the rules infractions," said Jeffrey Pollack. "We share culpability in this case and are satisfied that the actions in question were inadvertent mistakes. We look forward to Jamie's participation in the 2007 WSOP.

And Jamie of course is looking forward to returning to the WSOP. As he told us in our exclusive interview after the National Heads-Up Championship, "I think I'll make the final table this year. I know you're gonna slam me on this, but that's what I believe. If you don't believe that, then why are you playing?"

Then, within days of winning poker's biggest event in one of the most dominating performances ever (aided by some insanely fortuitous flops, turns and rivers), a lawsuit filed by premature ejaculating, gun-jumping Crispin Leyser brought on one of modern poker's ugliest chapters.

A series of misteps in the press followed, as well as some unfortunate personal hardships.

After saying the lawsuit with Crispin Leyser was "all really stupid" and "only the press made it out to be a big thing," Jamie Gold tells RawVegas.tv's Denise Pernula (and soon-to-be featured in Playboy) what he thinks about Wicked Chops Poker.

After getting bounced from Bodog's pro team, settling up his legal shenanigans with Crispin Leyser before he lost even more of his $12 million and repeatedly goose-egging it at major tournaments and on TV since the WSOP, we didn't think we'd hear much from Jamie Gold for awhile, which was pretty foolish for us to think since Gold is basically like a case of herpes, which the game of poker first contracted last August. Disappearing at times only to pop up every so often to remind us how bad it's gotten since those final days last summer.

And so like herpes, or that girl from the Lotto & Groceries store who keeps calling us saying one of us is her baby's daddy, there was Jamie Gold popping up again today, this time chatting it up in a New York Times article about his regrets from the World Series of Poker and how easy it was to settle the lawsuit with Leyser.

"Jamie always intended on sharing his winnings with Crispin . . . Jamie and Crispin are happy to report they have fully settled this matter. They are pleased to be closing this chapter and look forward to continued success."

Since we mentioned the other day that Jamie Gold was, at one point, the chipleader during day one of the 2007 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open, we thought we'd update you on his progress by posting this video metaphor of how things went for him, followed by the text after the jump.

"In light of its decision to cease all offline marketing initiatives in the U.S., and instead refocus its efforts on growing its entertainment brand in Europe and Asia, Bodog has ended its business relationship with Jamie Gold. Bodog has enjoyed our association with Mr. Gold and wishes him the best of luck in his future endeavors."

Whether those future endeavors will include Gold starting a Team Buzznation poker team consisting of himself and anyone who can stand to be on the same team as him is yet to be seen. There's been no official word yet from the Gold camp, who we suspect are too busy still trying to fuck a football to get a statement out any time soon.

Relive all of the excitement, passion, glory and other emotions that don't come remotely close to summing up the way you've felt about Jamie Gold over the past 6 months here at Wicked Chops Poker.

The first hand of the first episode of High Stakes Poker on GSN was a gem, with Jamie Gold making a move on "Big Poppa" Doyle Brunson on the turn when he had bottom pair and a straight draw while Brunson held the nuts, and it's now up at YouTube.com, which you can view below. Up For Poker has a transcript of the hand, in part, but watch the video (beginning about 3 minutes in) for Gabe Kaplan's priceless commentary and for Sheiky and the gang's digs at the high stakes newbie.

If there's one thing we've learned in covering the Crispin Leyser v. Jamie Gold case is that both guys have some seriously loyal friends. People who are sticking by them, through thick and thin, defending them in the media and via emails and phone calls to us, and sometimes with annoying ass comments to our posts that rival some fat ass hoochie momma on Jerry Springer who thinks she's all that and a bag of chips and we're just jealous of them.

And we here at Wicked Chops Poker often find ourselves in the middle of all this, as we report on the case and share our instant opinions on both guys, because a number of our friends and acquaintances in poker are among these seriously loyal friends, and when we diss on either, they're the first to let us know we suck.

Well, one seriously loyal friend of Crispin Leyser, poker pro Mark Seif, who also happens to be a FOWCP and a past WCP Heads-Up interviewee but likely thinks we suck, has just publicly aired his thoughts on Gold and the lawsuit in his first blog for BluffMagazine.com.

"His actions, in the court's view, do not give the plaintiff much assurance that the money would, in fact, be available in the event of a judgment in his favor. The likelihood of success weighs on the side of the plaintiff."

According to Gold's friend, Jamie was set to play the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas and had just landed at McCarran Airport when he got the news from his mom and caught the next flight home. Jamie Gold's father became an integral part of Gold's WSOP story after Jamie pledged to use the money from his winnings to make his father as comfortable as possible and when Gold called him from the final table immediately after winning.

"How in the world does Gold hurt the game? I see a lot of haters out there that are simply jealous. No real facts to back anything up. Go see the on camera interview I did with him for FOXSports for 1 hour and your opinion will change. Straight forward, humble guy who loves the game.

You can view the video of Tapscott's FOXSports interview here and let us know what you think.

Also worth viewing is the excellent, level-headed comment from reader Waynebullet, who leans towards thinking Gold is not good for poker but without resorting to the kind of hoochie-mama-on-Maury-saying-she's-all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips argument we've been seeing in the Gold-Leyser debate. For the record, we wholeheartedly agree with Waynebullet when he says that the lawsuit is bad for poker. It's something we've saidbefore, and while the damage is already done, the sooner the parties settle the better.

Token Jamie Gold-Crispin Leyser photo from the 2006 WSOP after the jump.

Since our October spread in Bluff Magazine, where we asked whether controversial WSOP champ, Jamie Gold, is good for poker, Bluff has had a poll up on their homepage where people can vote and voice their opinion on the matter, and boy do we know people have strongs opinions on this because, as they say, opinions are like assholes and everyone we know is one, and they stink like poop.

Apparently a woman named Jessica Denay, who has a bit of a celebrity following and who co-founded an online community called HotMomsClub.com and published "The Hot Mom's Handbook: Moms Have More Fun!," has two TV shows and a radio program in development and isn't happy about Gold busting in on her hot moms market. "This has only hurt our company," said Denay, who said her business was "started by moms, not a big corporation, not a marketing firm, not men — real moms who know what it is like to juggle our own needs and the needs of our families."

What she means by this whole juggling "our own needs" stuff, we have no idea. Like is she talking about food and sex? The way she says it makes it sound like she has "needs" that a man can't satisfy with a good meal and a romp, which if this is the case, she might as well be talking about journalistic integrity to us in Farsi, or better yet, be Canadian. All very foreign to us.

An equally interesting quote, on the other end of the battle of the sexes, is when Gold's biz partner and Buzznation executive VP, Jeff Greenfield, was asked about the fine line between celebrating motherhood and the whole "sexiness" thing of it all. Seemingly out of nowhere Greenfield brought up the "P" word, saying, "There's a fine line between Porn and regular stuff. This is a show that is sexy enough to satisfy the people that are looking for that, but it is definitely not that at all."

So to be clear here, "Hottest Mom in America" is definitely not porn. Absolutely not. No way.

BUT it will satisfy people looking for porn?

Sounds like a website we know.

By the way, Wicked Chops Poker totally sides with Jessica Denay in this trademark battle solely because her silhouette of a hot mom is way hotter than Buzznation's. Seriously, if you had to bang a silhouette, Denay's mom, sans the brats, would be right up there alongside Charlie's Angels or a Bond girl silhouette. Also, and in no way ironic, Jessica Denay is hot herself, so she has that going for her. Yes, photos of her after the jump.

By the way, if our photoshop expert was in right now we would have put Leyser's face on Charles Bronson's body on the poster to the left to drive the point home that Leyser really is Bronson tough. But you'll have to settle for second best, photos here and after the jump of Keeley Hazell in her recent Zoo spread doing Christina Aguilera's boxing in her panties and chaps tough girl thing. There are also photos of Keeley doing the Britney Spears Catholic school girl number and a video from her Kylie Minogue bit, which aren't so tough looking as they are Keeley doing the Britney Catholic school girl number and Kylie bit.

We're not going to suggest that Crispin "Don't Call Me Bruce" Leyser is a few wine coolers away from joining the Clay Aiken fan club or that his "wife" Jules is his "beard." Or that Bob Stupak, Jeffrey Pollack, Lance Bass and Crispin Leysermay all have something in common, not that there's anything wrong with that. To suggest any of this would be inappropriate.

Regardless, we're just saying.

What we will say though is that Jamie Gold's attorneys have finally told his side of the story in the Motion they filed on Wednesday, November 1. And it's compelling; first, in the way that it shapes Gold's promise to share his winnings as a non-enforceable gift rather than a bargained-for agreement, and two, in the way that it makes Crispin Leyser seem like a sad, desperate, overly eager, down-on-his-luck guy who Jamie felt sorry for, that is until he began harassing Gold like an obsessive, needy girlfriend who wants to know everything is fine with the relationship and calls and calls and texts and texts like an annoying bitch girl and then files a lawsuit against you without notice.

You may be asking why we have a photo of Brooke Burke above when this post is about Jamie Gold dining at Seablue with James Gandolfini, and to that we say there is no such thing as a dumb question EXCEPT for that one. Because this post could be about plasma microturbulence in fusion reactors and a photo of Brooke Burke would make perfect sense. Why you say? Seriously what's with all the questions? Can't you just enjoy pics of Brooke Burke without asking questions?

Oh and for the fun of it, the first person to correctly guess why we thought of using a pic of Brooke Burke with a post about Jamie Gold wins a Wicked Chops Poker t-shirt. One of the links above offers a clue. Sort of. The 5 photos of Brooke Burke after the jump provide no clue whatsoever so don't even bother looking at them.

Because if it was "as a matter of Jamie's word," or "as a matter of principle," or "as a matter of not fucking with poker's longstanding tradition of handshake deals," then Crispin Leyser would likely already have his half, and we'd be able to watch the Main Event on ESPN with at least some sense of enjoyment and a modicum of respect for Jamie Gold's confident table talk and spectacular big stack play (and yes, his fortunate flops).

Instead, we watch the ESPN broadcast hoping somehow, someway it was all just a bad dream, that the past has miraculously changed and someone else like Allen Cunningham or Paul Wasicka (and definitely not Richard Lee) goes on to become the face of poker for the coming year. Someone who would rather talk poker than pitch crap reality TV shows. Someone who would rather stand behind his word than stand behind his lawyers. And someone who didn't let money get the best of him before it was even his to claim.

Regardless of our opinion of Gold's actions and the ugly lawsuit that has ensued, this isn't a one-sided, black-and-white argument. Jamie Gold, himself, isn't totally to blame...

With this bit of news we think now is a good time to post a bit of a transcript from the oft-citedJamie Gold "Rounders" radio interview, in particular the part in which Gold talks out of his ass about Crispin Leyser, who he describes as a "good friend," which apparently is Hollywood talk for "a person he has only known since July of this year." Gold was asked by Mike and Adam about the possibility of him not playing this year's WSOP because the seat could have gone to Leyser instead, to which Gold's ass said:

"It turned out that Crispin was very helpful - this is true. He is a good friend of mine and he was very helpful in securing some celebrities for the Bodog celebrity team and for that they offered me - and I felt bad and I said you know what, maybe you should be offering it to Crispin and I'm gonna put up the money anyway and they said no....

....They didnt know Crispin but they knew I was a great poker player .... and they said ... 'Everyone is telling us you are like Kobe Bryant coming out of high school - that you actually have a shot to make it so we want to see what you can do' . . . 'You're not allowed to transfer this to Crispin' - cause I had talked to him and that is true. I had said maybe you should just play and I'll give it to you and they said absolutely not, and with no offense to him, they didn't know him. They just had no idea who he was."

And as you digest that, just for the fun of it, or better yet, to make you feel better about the fact that you don't make millions pawning crap reality TV shows to American audiences, after the jump is an example of what Jamie and his peeps are spamming online forums with for their "Hottest Mom in America" show. There's also a shorter one out there that hypes: "Felicity Huffman's former manager and a producer from Survivor are coming to Dallas to audition hot moms like you." It's all just a parody of itself really, which kind of sucks because we can't really add anything here to make it funnier.

Earlier today while (not so) busy breaking news that Jamie Gold filed a motion to move the Leyser suit to federal court, the entities that comprise Wicked Chops Enterprises LLC engaged in a heated discussion concerning the tax implications surrounding Crispin Leyser's claims, except replace "heated" with "frequently off-track and mildly interested." While we were on-track though the conversation focused primarily on Leyser's statement in paragraph 6 of the affidavit he filed in support of his complaint. It says:

"I am concerned that if Defendant transfers my 50% of the winnings from the Rio Hotel and Casino to an unknown account and does not fill out a form 5754 and direct the casino to provide two separate W-2G forms, that there will be adverse tax consuquences and that I will be unable to collect the $6,000,000 that I am entitled to received."

Form 5754 and W-2G, by the way, are the tax forms U.S. residents must fill out to report gambling winnings and money withheld on those winnings, and Leyser's statement refers to what Gold allegedly told him in his now-famous $6 million voicemail message:

While waiting to find out the result of today's hearing in the Leyser v. Gold lawsuit, we got word from an inside source that Gold's lawyers filed a petition yesterday to have the case moved to federal court and that a hearing for such will take place Tuesday, September 5.

Anyway, below is the lame, boilerplate statement from Alfred Hopton at B|W|R :

“Jamie Gold is disappointed that the plaintiff, a person he has only known since July of this year, has elected to file litigation rather than continue the parties' discussions in an effort to find a resolution to this matter.

"Mr. Gold believes strongly in the American judicial system and believes that it is better to present his case there than to try the matter before the court of public opinion.

"He is pleased to have had the opportunity to participate and win the World Series of Poker and is pleased with the quality of the tournament, his outstanding opponents, and Harrahs, the event organizer. Mr. Gold further appreciates the support of his fans and sponsor, bodog.net, and hopes that this unfortunate litigation will not detract from the outstanding efforts of the entire field of participants in the World Series of Poker."

For more on the statement, check out CardPlayer.com and be sure to check out Lisa Wheeler's thorough summary of the lawsuit here.

When I (Snake) first met Crispin and Jules Leyser at this year's WSOP I was chowing down on greasy food just outside the Poker Kitchen as Milwaukee's Best Light girls took turns dancing in front of me like ecstacy-soused Carmen Electras strutting their stuff on the dance floor at Hef's house. It was a spectacular, suggestively-sexual, pseudo-striptease spectacle, alliteratively speaking, and one that would have been best enjoyed had it not been interrupted. But no such luck.

To be honest, I didn't know much about the Leysers at the time except for what was obvious during our conversation: they were apparently friends with Jamie Gold, knew a lot about poker, lived in Hollywood, spoke like Londoners and Jules was a pulchritudinous brunette with a resplendent smile (gets old saying "smoking hot" all the time). Shortly after this encounter though I learned that the pair were WPT Boot Camp Instructors and had a 50-50 split deal with Gold because Crispin had helped Jamie land some players for Bodog's celebrity team. And it was shortly after this (say, about 3 and a half minutes later) that I remembered how we had done a post more than a year ago about a radio interview with a couple who knew a lot about poker, lived in Hollywood, spoke like Londoners and the wife sounded like she may have been smoking hot. I thought, "Could this be the same people? Could the world really be this small? Could Pluto (at left) really not be a planet?"

Well, low and behold, the answer was yes, Pluto isn't a planet, which is really just blowing our fucking minds here at Wicked Chops Poker. We mean, that's some crazy shit. What was all that we learned back in elementary school? All a lie? Why are they just figuring this out now? What's next, George Washington didn't really cut down the cherry tree? Or, that's it's NOT OK to be touched "down there?"

Anyway, indeed that was the Leysers in the radio interview and you can check out the post we did here. After you listen to the first piece be sure to check out the follow-up piece entitled "Paying the Bills Playing Online Poker." Riveting stuff.

As we first reported earlier this week, the ex-agent/current producer is being sued by Crispin Leyser over an informal arrangement made between the two regarding Gold's potential WSOP winnings. It started when online gaming giant Bodog pledged to cover Gold's $10k WSOP ME buy-in in exchange for Gold recruiting some celeb players on Bodog's behalf. When Gold couldn't come through, he turned to Leyser, who was able to land the likes of Dax Shepard and Matthew Lillard. For this help, Gold pledged Leyser half of his WSOP Main Event earnings.

According to court filings, just three hours before the WSOP final table began, Gold allegedly left a message on Leyser's cell phone stating, "I promise you - you can keep this recording on my word - there's no possible way you're not going to get half [of the winnings] after taxes."

And as seen in this exclusive Wicked Chops Poker pic snapped right after his victory, Jamie's promise seemed to remain Golden, as Cripsin and his seriously hot wife, Jules, joined in the celebration.

However, Crispin has yet to see even one single crisp dollar bill, or even a silver nickle, from Gold. And a temporary restraining order has been issued this week by Clark County District Judge Kathy Hardcastle to prevent the Rio (where the WSOP ME is held) from disbursing half of Gold's winnings--the $6M he pledged to Leyser--for 15 days. A hearing is set for Sept. 1 to determine if the freeze will continue.

The national "media" and other pubs are picking up this story as it continues to gain steam. Read the articles below for more information on the happenings.

If we had our shit together this morning when we did our story on Jamie Gold getting sued by Crispin Leyser for half of his WSOP winnings, we would have realized that we had in our possession an exclusive photo of Jamie with Crispin and Jules Leyser standing over the disputed $12 million (the blonde next to Jamie is his girlfriend ex-girlfriend). We also may have used one of our photos of the $12 million dollars and tear it in half to illustrate Leyser's claim, kind of like we did the DJ AM/Nicole Richie photo but different, because Nicole Richie is a do-nothing, need-a-sandwich, F-list celeb who is not $12 million.

But truth be told, we didn't have our shit together. No, we were too busy NOT looking at the photos we took at the WSOP, like the ones to the right and after the jump, and instead were looking at photos of an Atlanta girl named Lennox Miller, who emailed us this morning and wants to play one of our upcoming home games, which if you are one of our current/first wives reading this, we kid. Lennox Miller doesn't exist. She's just a figment of our imaginations, perversions or something. If you aren't one of our current/first wives, check out a photo of Lennox Miller after the jump. She's the one in the lingerie below the $12 million.

Three hours before this year's WSOP final table got underway, Jamie Gold allegedly left a message on the cell phone of Crispin Leyser (seen at left), a Brit-born/Hollywood-based TV producer who some may know from the WPT Boot Camp, where he and his hot wife, Jules, are instructors.

"I promise you - you can keep this recording on my word - there's no possible way you're not going to get half after taxes," Jamie reportedly said about the $12 million he would go on to win. "I can't imagine you're going to have a problem with it. I just don't want any stress about any money or any of that shit going on today, or even after the end of the day."

Gold's word, as captured in this message, is now a crucial part of a lawsuit Leyser filed yesterday in the District Court in Clark County, claiming that he is entitled to half of Gold's $12 million because of an informal arrangement the pair had made after Bodog enlisted Gold to recruit celebrity players in exchange for his $10k buy-in. It seems Leyser had more ins with the in-crowd than Gold, and therefore, Leyser agreed to help Gold recruit celebs (like Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard) in exchange for half of any Gold's WSOP winnings.

So basically it was like the Steve Dannenmann-Jerry Ditzell deal at last year's WSOP, where the two Maryland-ers each put up $5k and agreed to split the winnings, but completely different--because Gold and Leyser are from Hollywood and rich folks from La La land don't pay for measly shit like buy-ins to the WSOP. Not when you got Shaggy's and Dax's digits, baby. Those are worth their weight in gold, which in this case, may be worth $6 million (by the way, both went out early Day 1, for what that's worth...again, maybe $6 million).

If I (Snake) wasn't busy last friday sleeping all day after being up 24 hours covering the final table at the WSOP only to finally wake up around 5pm-ish to eat dinner and play the Caesar's 7 o'clock tourney only to get knocked out when it was down to 3 tables because my pocket aces were no match to pocket fours that found a third on the river only then to head over to the Bellagio to play a NL cash game only to have my pocket aces cracked again with over $1k in the pot preflop because some pimple-faced pansy with A-Q hit a flush on the river, then these photos (below and after the jump) of Jamie Gold in the Bodog lounge with the only two Bodog Girls awake at 7 am on Friday morning when I took this photo would have been our Friday Night Parting Shot last Friday.

And perhaps Lee is entitled to voice his own opinion of Gold without much deference to grace. Perhaps he earned that right after eight grueling days of poker and outlasting more than 8,700 players, only to get knocked out by Gold when Gold had...um...a much better hand and Lee failed to account for the former Hollywood agent's tendency to not laydown easily in the face of a massive reraise. We also understand that it all may have been said in the heat of the moment, the fog of battle, or perhaps, the haze from many long hours of poker followed by an early morning of drowning away sorrows and drinking away thoughts of a WSOP title that might have been.

The ex-agent/current producer/Team Bodog member was chip leader since Day 4. He never relinquished the chip lead during nearly 14 hours of final table play. Only for brief periods did he not have at least a 2-to-1 chip advantage over his nearest competitor.